Ailing resident seeks fine waiver to go home
Semi-paralysed man says he landed in UAE in wooden catamaran 52 years ago
‘ Iwant to live the rest of my life in Kerala. Let my death be there in my motherland.” This is the plea of a semiparalysed Indian man, 79, who claims to have landed in the UAE in a wooden catamaran 52 years ago, and is seeking repatriation during the coronavirus pandemic.
K. Raghavan, who once ran two tailoring shops in Dubai and a trading company in Ajman, had been unable to fly home due to the fines he incurred after his business went bust. Now living in a cramped room in Dubai’s Jaffiliya area, Raghavan said he had lost everything that he had earned in life by the time he fell sick with an ulcer and was eventually left semi-paralysed.
His visa expired three years before and he could not renew it as he has a liability of more than Dh60,000 in fines, in cases related to non-payment of rent and defaulting license renewals filed by the Ajman Free Zone.
Cheated by relative
“I wouldn’t have had this liability if my relative, who was taking care of the Ajman business, had not ditched me without making the payments,” Raghavan told Gulf News in a feeble voice over the phone on Sunday.
The elderly man is totally dependent on his wife Sarojini, 65, who was brought over on a visit visa by some well-wishers.
The couple, who had to sell their two-storey house and a 30-cent plot back home, is now pinning their hopes on the few social workers and community members who have been campaigning for their repatriation.